Ray Allen has spent the first half of this NBA season soaking in the sunshine, playing golf, spending time with his family and enjoying life as a retiree in Miami.

While LeBron James was out rehabbing injuries a couple of weeks ago he chose to do so in the warmth of South Florida.

While he was at it, LeBron went and met with Allen and tried to convince him to give all that up and return to the grind of the NBA, and do so in a cold-weather city. That according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

During James’ Miami jaunt, the four-time MVP met with free agent guard and former Miami Heat teammate Ray Allen in order to try and appeal to the league’s all-time leader in 3-pointers again about joining the Cavs this season, multiple sources told ESPN.com…

Apart from James’ face-to-face meeting with Allen, several other members of the Cavs have kept in contact with the shooting guard this season — James Jones and Mike Miller, who were also Allen’s teammates in Miami, as well as associate head coach Tyronn Lue, who was an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics when Allen played there.

Allen is expected to decide in the coming weeks whether to return to the NBA for a 19th season or not. He has said recently he is working to stay in shape, but wouldn’t go any farther than that.

If Allen returns he will have plenty of suitors — the Spurs, Clippers and other contenders have made their interest known — but the Cavaliers are considered to be the frontrunners. Allen has a comfort level with former teammates like LeBron, plus if he does come back it’s to chase a ring and going to a team in the East makes that an easier path than choosing a team out West.

Or, he might look at the Cavaliers situation (improving though it is) and decide the sunshine and golf are pretty hard to give up. Either way we will find out next month.

Undoubtedly, Durant cares about the DMV (District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia), just as LeBron James cares about Northeast Ohio. Durant can still care about the area without signing with the Wizards, but there is certainly something appealing about going home. It would certainly surprise nobody if Durant expresses his fondness for the DMV by signing with the Wizards.

There’s a risk Durant gets Washington fatigue before 2016, but as long as he’s enjoying the hometown love, the Wizards have a chance to nab the star.

We’re at the mid-way point of the NBA season — it’s time to hand out some virtual hardware.

Or, at least who we think should take home the NBA award hardware at this point. There’s still half a season to go and so every race is still open to change… except maybe Rookie of the Year.

The races feel wide open because some of the obvious front-runners have been injured and/or off their game — before the season everyone thought that MVP would be a two-horse race between Kevin Durant and LeBron James, but as of right now neither might make the top five for that award. So it goes on down the line.

The entire team at ProBasketballTalk — Kurt Helin, Brett Pollakoff, Dan Feldman and Sean Highkin — voted on all the major end-of-the-year awards and we’ve laid out our choices below below, with a little explanation of the thinking on each. As noted above, this is who would get our vote as of today, this list could look very different come the end of the season.

MOST VALUABLE PLAYER

Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors (Kurt, Dan, Sean): Offensively he is a force of nature and is the only player in the NBA in the top 10 in scoring (23.2 per game), assists (8 per game) and he is doing it efficiently — he is taking 16.4 shots a game, and has a ridiculous true shooting percentage of .636. However, the real reason he’s the best player on the best player on the best team is his improved defense. It’s not just the 2.1 steals per game it’s his ability to fight over picks, plus his improved help defense. This race is far from over — with Kevin Durant and LeBron James down this season the field is wide open — but Curry is making a strong case for the MVP. —KH

James Harden, Houston Rockets (Brett): Stephen Curry has been the best player on the league’s best team, and usually that’s enough to warrant MVP consideration. But James Harden has simply been otherworldly offensively, and much more valuable to his team’s overall success. Harden leads the league in scoring, has scored 40 or more points on four separate occasions, and led the Rockets to an 8-3 record while Dwight Howard was sidelined due to injury. Curry may be able to similarly carry his team, but the wealth of talent in Golden State means he hasn’t had to. Harden has, and he’s more than risen to that challenge. —BP

ROOKIE OF THE HALF YEAR

Andrew Wiggins, Minnesota Timberwolves (unanimous): This category has felt cursed with guys like Joel Embiid, Jabari Parker and Julius Randle out of the running due to injuries. But let’s not take away from the fact Andrew Wiggins has become a real shooter — he hit 39 percent from three in January — and is regularly notching 20 point games to go with his already solid defense and off the charts athleticism. This is not the most impressive rookie class so far, but Wiggins is starting to look like he could be special. He is developing quickly. —KH

COACH OF THE HALF YEAR

Mike Budenholzer, Atlanta Hawks (unanimous): There is a reason the Spurs didn’t want to see Budenholzer leave, that they wanted him to take over for Popovich someday, and you’re seeing it in Atlanta. The culture of selfless basketball, the player movement and ball movement, getting guys to buy in is all very Spursian and Budenholzer has brought it to Atlanta. Oh, and he’s got this team defending as well. Steve Kerr might be second in this race, he’s done a good job, but nobody has exceeded expectations and changed the feel of a team like Budenholzer. —KH

Lou Williams, Toronto Raptors (Brett): It often takes two seasons for someone to fully recover from knee surgery and Williams is the poster child for that, bouncing back this season for the Raptors to score 15 points a game in better than 24 minutes a night. His athleticism has returned and with that he is attacking and getting to the line 4.8 times a game. He’s the energy the Raptors needed off the bench and is putting up numbers that warrant him winning the award.

Marreese Speights, Golden State Warriors (Kurt, Sean): While he’s playing fewer minutes (just below 19 a game) than any of the other candidates for this rather wide open award, he’s having a huge impact. There are the raw numbers of 12.6 points and 5.1 rebounds a game, but Speights is putting up his numbers far more efficiently than his competition with a .568 true shooting percentage and a 21.2 PER. Speights is also the best defensive player of the candidates, and is a central part of the Warriors’ league-best defense. —KH

Tristan Thompson, Cleveland Cavaliers (Dan): Sixth Man of the Year is a wide-open race with at least a dozen legitimate candidates. I went with Thompson, who’s averaging 9.8 points and 8.1 rebounds per game, because he’s filled a large role while clearly making his team better when on the court. To be fair, Thompson earned a lot of his value while starting for an injured Anderson Varejao, but the award’s criteria doesn’t separate production when starting vs. coming off the bench. The only rule is a player must come off the bench more than he starts, which Thompson has (31 games off the bench, 11 starts). With Timofey Mozgov stepping in, Thompson probably won’t deserve this honor at the end of the year, but for the season’s first half, he’s got my vote. —DF

DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE HALF YEAR

Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors (Kurt, Dan): You really need to watch Golden State’s league-best defense to see how Draymond Green is key, how he is the glue that makes it work and how he should be DPOY. The advanced stats show it, he leads the NBA in defensive rating and defensive win shares. If you get caught up in his traditional numbers — not bad at 1.5 blocks and 1.4 steals a game but not eye popping — you miss the point. This is more like Marc Gasol winning a couple of years ago, when you watched closely he deserved it. There are other deserving candidates this year but Green should be at the top of the list. —KH

Tim Duncan, San Antonio Spurs (Sean): Father time is losing the foot race with Duncan and he has anchored another strong year from the Spurs defense. Duncan has some raw numbers — two blocks a game while being in the top-five of both defensive rating and defensive win shares — but it is his intangibles leading that defense and make the Spurs dangerous. It doesn’t matter what age he is. —KH

DeAndre Jordan, Los Angeles Clippers (Brett): Remember that part of defense is rebounding — you need to end the other team’s possession — and nobody has been better at that this season than Jordan, who is pulling down 13.4 boards a game. Combine that with his 2.4 blocks a game (second in the league) and you have a guy in charge of the glass when he is on the court.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER OF THE HALF YEAR

Jimmy Butler, Chicago Bulls (Kurt, Brett, Dan): If you’re going to improve, do it in a contract year. Butler and the Bulls couldn’t agree on a contract extension number and now the Bulls are going to really pay for him because in addition to his quality defense Butler has found his shooting stroke, hitting 39.7 percent from three (up from 28.3 percent a year ago), and is shooting 46.5 percent overall (up from 39.7 percent last season). He’s averaging 20.6 points a game for an improved Bulls offense, and while he’s been in a bit of a slump the past few weeks he’s still the leader in this category. —KH

Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors (Sean): Under head coach Steve Kerr Green has jumped both in his production and role to become a key part of the West’s best team in the first half. He’s scoring more points (11.5 a game) but is doing it more efficiently and he is taking more threes and helping spread the floor for a team that loaded with dangerous shooters. He’s also a very good defender who has been the glue for making what the Warriors do on that end work. His improvement, and the trust Kerr has shown in him, make him a Sixth Man of the Year.

The Washington Wizards are 29-13, if the playoffs started today they would be the No. 2 seed in the East ahead of teams like Toronto, Chicago and Cleveland. They would also be a real playoff threat — when Nene is healthy the Wizards are a tough out for any team. This is the kind of team a lot of fan bases dream about.

But Wednesday night at the Verizon Center, Wizards fans are not going to be dreaming of the playoffs or this roster. They are going to be dreaming of Kevin Durant in a Wizards uniform.

Ever since LeBron James chose to return home and play in Northeast Ohio, Wizards fans have dreamed that come that come the summer of 2016 Durant will chose to do the same, bolting Oklahoma City for The District.

“It’s strange because he doesn’t play for us,” said Bradley Beal, who has beaten the Thunder in each home game since he turned pro three years ago. “Who knows what he’s going to do in the next couple of years. It’s kind of weird and it’s kind of cool at the same time to imagine that, to picture that.”

“It’s funny,” Wall said of the Wizards’ jerseys with Durant’s name. “It’s something you probably wouldn’t have thought about two or three years ago of having guys or free agents thinking of wanting to come here, or fans thinking about that. It’s fun. It’s exciting. (But) it’s a long haul away.”

As I’ve said before, if you talk to Durant at all on the free agency topic — and he does not want to discuss it — you get the real sense he doesn’t have any idea what he’s going to do in 2016. Which is the way it should be. Let this season and the playoffs play out, then see what happens next season, then get serious about a decision. While I think him remaining with the Thunder is the most likely outcome, at this point there are so many variables that could swing things in different directions it is impossible to know how things will play out. If Durant does decide to test the free agent waters there will be 29 other teams willing to do whatever it takes to get him on the roster. He is a franchise changing player.